An interview on Forbes talks with Mike Capps, President of Epic Games about the developer's future plans (thanks Eurogamer). Along the way he explains that they are not working on any Unreal/Unreal Tournament games at the moment, though there's no word on whether they have any Jazz Jackrabbit projects in the works. Here's word:

Unreal and Unreal Tournament continue to have a huge influence on the studio here, even though we’re not currently working on an Unreal IP project. Epic’s core game making philosophy of “when everyone says it’s done, keep polishing!” came from our experiences with Unreal Tournament. That’s the beginning of our quality-focused studio DNA.

I concur.Obviously anyone that is a gamer and slaggin Unreal has never played it because they were too young to enjoy the advancement in technology at the time... I mena comparing it with Gears of War 3?? REALLY?!!!!

entr0py wrote on Sep 21, 2011, 18:22:It would be great if Epic to make another game like Unreal, only set in a more interesting and imaginative world.

Wow did you even play the same Unreal as I did? I still rate it as one of my all time favorite games BECAUSE it was such an interesting an imaginative world. I was like the gaming equivalent some of the types of sci-fi stories I enjoy which create a whole different but believable world (for example "Dune" and "To Your Scattered Bodies Go"). I don't think this has been done since, at least not in the sort of games I play.

Yes it didn't have a movie-like plot or cut scenes (a bonus as that would have just got in the way), the really memorable characters were the maps that actually felt like real places rather than a series of corridors - The Sunspire, Bluff Eversmoking and so on.

The IP is the story, character and aliens from Unreal and Unreal II. And really, those were not memorable or interesting at all. I remember that the aliens had tusks and wrist blade things, and that the second game featured an attractive girl. I couldn't tell you the name of any character or why I was shooting at aliens for hours. I suspect crystals might have been involved somehow.

Actually, Unreal 2 had a pretty memorable ending. Mainly because it was the most depressing ending I've ever seen in any game ever.

Beamer wrote on Sep 21, 2011, 19:06:Yup, except I disagree that Quake had a plot.

Quake had Axes.

In the end, that's all that mattered.

^D^

Haha, yeah I mean that all of those games had at least one of those qualities; interesting characters, monsters, or plot. With Quake it was the all about the monsters, weapons and ambiance. I still find the Quake monsters far more memorable than the strogg strogg strogg of later installments.

It wouldn't be possible for me to agree more withing the confines of this universe.

Beamer wrote on Sep 21, 2011, 19:06:Yup, except I disagree that Quake had a plot.

Quake had Axes.

In the end, that's all that mattered.

^D^

Haha, yeah I mean that all of those games had at least one of those qualities; interesting characters, monsters, or plot. With Quake it was the all about the monsters, weapons and ambiance. I still find the Quake monsters far more memorable than the strogg strogg strogg of later installments.

entr0py wrote on Sep 21, 2011, 18:22:Exactly, the IP of Unreal does not include any of the things we fondly remember, like the engine, the pretty environments or the tight shooter game-play.

The IP is the story, character and aliens from Unreal and Unreal II. And really, those were not memorable or interesting at all. I remember that the aliens had tusks and wrist blade things, and that the second game featured an attractive girl. I couldn't tell you the name of any character or why I was shooting at aliens for hours. I suspect crystals might have been involved somehow.

This is a stark contrast to other big shooters of the era, like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem and Half-Life. All of those had memorable characters, monsters or story-lines that are worth following up on.

It would be great if Epic to make another game like Unreal, only set in a more interesting and imaginative world.

Yup, except I disagree that Quake had a plot.

Epic has actually made a pretty interesting and imaginative world in Gears of War that they've fleshed out incredibly (because it isn't like it was abundantly clear how vastly thought out the world was in the first game. Or the second. Or probably the third.) Enough to fill 5 books now. They've learned a huge amount from that and now take writing more seriously (I'm pretty sure the author of the book wrote much of Gears 3.) If they start new with everything they've learned there we'll end up with something pretty interesting.

Exactly, the IP of Unreal does not include any of the things we fondly remember, like the engine, the pretty environments or the tight shooter game-play.

The IP is the story, character and aliens from Unreal and Unreal II. And really, those were not memorable or interesting at all. I remember that the aliens had tusks and wrist blade things, and that the second game featured an attractive girl. I couldn't tell you the name of any character or why I was shooting at aliens for hours. I suspect crystals might have been involved somehow.

This is a stark contrast to other big shooters of the era, like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem and Half-Life. All of those had memorable characters, monsters or story-lines that are worth following up on.

It would be great if Epic to make another game like Unreal, only set in a more interesting and imaginative world.

Unreal is an IP the way LotR is a story about a short guy who digs jewelry.Frankly, I've always looked at UT as a UDK with art included, and Unreal and Unreal 2 were fun but not worth anything beyond a single play through, gameplay wise.With the UDK demonstrating via countless indies, the power of the engine, Epic doesn't need to put out any more 'examples'.

Unreal has always been a piece of crap game right from the very start.

Completely disagree. I am okay with them taking a break before the next UT, but the formula works for me. I have a feeling, though, that this essentially means Epic has all but given up making games for the PC market. Oh well, as long as they continue to support the UDK, I'll be happy.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Mk was a great fighting game, and Street Fighter was better but both were welcome.

I leaned more towards Tripes and the BF series of games. For some reason Quake and Unreal just never did it for me and apparently my friends who all worked at gaming companies. Not that, that is the meter of why Unreal was (un)successful, but just no one ever talked about it or played it. Quake they did, but not Unreal.

Peeps that think that Unreal wasn't very good obviously were addicted to Paper Mario... I'll never forget stepping out of the prison ship into the beautiful world of Unreal!!! Actually that game is what spurded me on to upgrade my vid card from a S3 16mb vid card to the rockin TNT 2 @ 32megs!!

venomhed wrote on Sep 21, 2011, 13:38:Unreal has always been a piece of crap game right from the very start. It is the Mortal Kombat of FPS shooters, but unlike MK (A great fighting game) Unreal just game off as WWF stupid.

Goodbye, good riddance.

Now, if we can just convince Relic to ditch the stupid as fuck Warhammer franchise and get back to Company or Heroes and Homeworld we could all cheer hurray!

Evil Timmy wrote on Sep 21, 2011, 12:22:Let's dig out Jill of the Jungle and OMF:2097 for their next games. Surely they have a huge cachet with modern audiences, since they came out in...1992 and 1994, respectively. Seeing as those born in 1994 can now fully legitimately buy M-rated games. *sigh*

The world of their Samaritan demo seems pretty sweet, though, wonder if that's some of their new IP, or at least a version of it. I like the Blade-Runner-meets-Prototype vibe, and if next-gen console visuals are up to that standard, it'll be one last grand hurrah for separate gaming devices. After this upcoming generation, it's a solid bet our phones will be more than powerful enough to handle everything, whether on their own screen or hooked up to a flatscreen.

Samaritan demo was nothing more than a demo for their new engine. Not a new game.

That's what everyone said of the UE3 demo that turned into Gears of War. They were showing Gears footage a full year before they announced Gears.